Nico Rosberg accomplished the perfect prelude to his 200 Grand Prix start by snatching pole position for tomorrow's race by a wide margin following a stunning performance.
The German ended up with a margin of over half of a second over second placed-man Daniel Ricciardo, and with no particular worries to report.
"I'm definitely happy with that one for my 200 Grand Prix, enthused the Mercedes driver.
"For sure, it was one of my top three laps ever, so happy that it really went well. At times, it wasn't clear in qualifying how we were going to stack up against the Red Bull for example, because they were very quick on the SuperSoft in Q2."
Commenting on Mercedes performance compared with its dramatic lapse in 2015 at the Marina Bay venue, Rosberg said it was a testimony to the team's outright strength.
"Last year we were nowhere in qualifying so this really shows the quality of the team, to be able to understand something like that and turn things around."
While Rosberg hopes to sustain his current momentum, he'll still be watching attentively the man starting alongside him on tomorrow's grid.
"For sure I'll be keeping an eye on him [Ricciardo], because they had good race pace on Friday, probably more so than their qualifying pace. So for sure, he is going to be a threat, especially with that SuperSoft tyre."
Indeed, Ricciardo's Red Bull will be starting on the more durable red-lined tyre while both Rosberg and Hamilton will be launching their race with the purple UltraSoft compound. Today's poleman isn't wary however of any strategy issues.
"Strategy is one of our many strengths, so I don't have any concerns there. We'll work out the best plan for tomorrow and I think it will be good."
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